I used to blog about museum work on my academic website. Since that page has gone away, I am using this space to repost some of my favorite bits. These posts were written in 2012-13.
London in Brief | Originally posted March, 2013
So the HAM flew all five graduate student task force members and our two fearless leaders to London for the week to conduct peer institution research. Phew! I’m still processing what I learned (and still trying to stay up past 10pm), but here is what I learned so far:
- We learn when we relax. Play is deadly serious. Museums are people’s leisure activity. Therefore, the museum experience should be social and fun.
- Learning is a conversation, a dialogical way of understanding. When we want to understand each other or a work of art, we must speak, ask questions, and listen actively.
- Learning is lifelong and lifewide.
- Learning is a change in behavior or attitude as the result of reflection on experience.
- Museums are not neutral spaces. They communicate values, so museums must communicate with intention.
- Reciprocity between the institution and the community is a process.
- Ethics are expensive.
- You don’t want kids to feel like they can flunk the museum. The most important thing is to make kids feel like adults are listening.
- To have an impact on schools and communities, work with teachers.
- The goal of museum education should be to make museum educators obsolete.
What can I say? London kicked our butts.
Looking back on this post, I can understand now how formative that trip was for me. Recently, I saw Corinne Zimmerman at the Gardner Museum; she reminded me how jazzed I was after our visit to the University of Leicester (where I am now studying for my MA in Visitor and Learning Studies). She told me that, while waiting for the train, I kept shouting — “I feel like a radical!”
mindful museums 